Cohousing group aquire site

site as existing with old house to rear co-design workshops excavation and setting-out foundations setting-out slabs and steelwork roofs under construction completion completion

Architectsappointed

Structural Engineerproduces desktopsurvey

Structural Engineersproducestrategy

Project outto tender tocontractors

Cost issuesaround soilretention &design implications

Designof ‘no dig’layers aspart of strategy

Issues aroundcontaminatedsoil reseolved

Demolitionof existingoutbuildingsby MHH

Excavationand constructioncommencesfor new build

Soil samplestaken & analysed

heavy metalsasbestoswater

water table

where it’s from

:

http://ww

w0.uralasbest.ru/ve.php

https://ww

w.theguardian.com

/us-news/2018/jul/11/asbestos-trum

p-face-seal-uralasbest-russia

landfill

Cohousing/Commoningownership ofland

Soil carted away

MHH

https://ww

w.geplus.co.uk/features/sustainability-aw

ard-2-01-04-2019/

https://ww

w.scientificam

erican.com/article/only-60-years-of-farm

ing-left-if-soil-degradation-continues/

https://ww

w.sheffi

eld.ac.uk/news/nr/replace-soil-w

ith-foam-to-solve-global-food-security-crisis-1.844603

BBC R4 doc on waste

https://ww

w.bbc.co.uk/program

mes/m

0000t75

New topsoilbrought to site

Completion

reporthttps://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=11&ved=2ahUKEwiVtq_u1fjlAhW7RhUIHXwHB9QQFjAKegQIARAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsciencesearch.defra.gov.uk%2FDocument.aspx%3FDocument%3D14361_WR1919LandfillAftercareScopingStudyFINAL.pdf&usg=AOvVaw13_phJwuB-OD4OyNhJNE7s

VISIBLEVISIBLE

INVISIBLE

recyclecircular econom

y

https://amsterdam

smartcity.com

/projects/circle-scan-amsterdam

BBC landfill storyhttps://w

ww

.bbc.co.uk/programm

es/b0bgpc2f

SCRATCHING THE

SURFACE

SCRATCHING THE

SURFACE

https://cohousing.org.uk/

http://map.w

hoownsengland.org/

COMMENT:Cohousing group buyex-NHS property,formerly privateestate / CHANGE fromprivate/Gov/common

COMMENT:What is in the groundis not unusual for anurban or even sub-urbansite

COMMENT:The design evolved graduallyover a series of meetings and workshops with the whole group,starting initially with a meal todiscuss aspirations and ideals and moving through sessions looking at archtectural language, massing on site and then more detail design of the houses themselves.At all stages, there was a need tobalance the individual ideas and concerns with the collective, alongside budget, environmentalperformance and regulatory(ie planning) requirements.

COMMENT:As can be seen from the engineering report,the strategy was initiallyto replace 600mm of topsoilacross the the site to avoidcontamination issues, this was later ruled out for cost reasons

COMMENT:Soil was brought in from ahousing development sitein Brimington, Chesterfield.

COMMENT:Strategies for retainingcontaminated soil on siteappeared at this stage to savea large amount of money, (arequirement given the high tender returns) but withsignificant design consequences.

COMMENT:Timescales, regulations & space onsite mean that much of whatwas demolished was not reusedon site, but taken away and recycled

QUESTION:How can waste be reducedin building & systems design?

QUESTION:What are the issues with our use of soil?

Studio Polpo worked with Architype as architects for the Shirle Hill cohousing development in Sheffield. The site, a former house more recently used as an NHS facility, was bought by a group of 12 people, with a view to converting the existing building into flats, building an additional five new sustainable dwellings, and establishing a cohousing community with shared facilities and outdoor spaces.

Throughout the long process of co-design, planning and running the project on site, various issues around ground conditions and soil arose which had site, cost and time implications for the design of the project and the cohousing group.

These are very common issues for ‘brownfield’ developments, but were the first time that the client group had been made aware of them. The fact that what looked to be ‘ordinary’ soil was classed as contaminated, and what that meant to them in practice was maybe the first time that they had come across these issues.

We have used this opportunity to following the practical issues on site (existing soil being tested, new soil being imported, demolition waste being removed, land being owned collectively) to reveal deeper issues around what we do with ‘waste’, the value of landfilled materials, regulation, organised crime, and biology.

Using original project documentation and a timeline to chart these issues on site, we have mapped on a series of links to documentaries and articles for ‘further reading’ . Our collective walk around the reclamation yard run by MHH (the company that demolished and removed the outbuildings on the Shirle Hill site) reveals this unusual and temporary man-made landscape where demolition materials are separated and processed for re-use. Our session follows this with a discussion around issues raised at the nearby Grimesthorpe Community Centre.

The process of designing and building newhouse at Shirle Hill is, in many ways, fairlytypical, and many of those involved, fromboth a client and professional side, are onlyaware of issuses raised in away that relatesto the proejct itself.

There are fascinating and complex issuesconnected to every aspect of the process, andthe links shown here are a way in to these.

These sources include:

* a BBC radio programme on the black market in waste removal from building sites and the money to be made by criminal gangs now regulation has made removal more costly

* a documentary on what happens to landfill, excavating historic landfill and asking about the wealth of material buried underground.

* a DEFRA document on landfill exploring issues of landfill site abandonment as a result of increased material re-use.

* A mapping project that documents land ownership in the UK

This is just a starting point, and, we hope, a promptfor discussion of how these issues might be addressed in the face of climate emergency, a growing population, and divisive politics.

By exposing and connecting what often appear to be very separate issues there is often an answer, and the role of the arts in provoking, questioning and exploring ideas may be crucial.

2019www.studiopolpo.com

NOTES / DOODLES /THOUGHTS

with thanks to

Scratching the Surface is part of Arts Catalyst’s ‘Recentring Attention’series.Over the next 18 months, we will embark on a new strand of programmes for Sheffield, Recentring Attention, to build on the knowledge and relationships that we have begun to form with tthe city.

The exploratory phase began in September 2019 with a series of public workshops, deep mapping sessions, talks and informal gatherings across Sheffield with artists, scientists, architects, urbanists, sociologists and anthropologists, to question what institutions are and reimagine what they could be.

A collaborative process of listening and learning from and with the city, Recentring Attention offers a creative, public space for transdisciplinary exchange and conversation with Sheffield and the wider South Yorkshire communities.

If you have any questions about our move or are based in Sheffield and would like to get in touch about the possibility of working together in the future, please contact Claudia Lastra (executive director) claudia.lastra@artscatalyst.org.

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